Writers Reach Out And Touch Future

SCIENCE FICTION

October 13, 1996|By William Marden Special To The Sentinel

One of the most important trends in science fiction in recent years has been the emergence of the ''cyberpunk'' subgenre of speculation about the impact of an increasingly computerized and wired world.

William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, two of cyberpunk's influential pioneers and prophets, both have new books. And both books tend to show just how fleeting and faddish the cyberpunk literary wave was. Lasting not much more than a decade, it lumped together very dissimilar writers because they were young, hip and unafraid of computers. Cyberpunk also provided a convenient commercial pigeonhole for a lot of different books. Looking at Gibson's and Sterling's new works makes you wonder how they ever could have been considered literary soul mates.

It is clear, however, that Gibson can validly be considered the father of the cyberpunk movement. Idoru (Putnam, $24.95, 292 pages) continues to display Gibson's unique strengths. As usual, he succeeds in painting a portrait of a near future world that is very, very strange, yet is a solid science fiction extrapolation of current technology and social needs.

The compelling story is about, among many other things, the first ''marriage'' between a flesh-and-blood rock icon and a ''virtual personality,'' a woman who may or may not be the first true artificial computerized intelligence and who exists only within cyberspace.

But Gibson also possesses the ability to paint a tangible portrait of the world around his characters. It is a world of solid objects, a world in which the reader can see and touch and smell the future. It is likely the true source of Gibson's appeal. His intelligence and imagination take readers into worlds they have never dreamed of, but Gibson makes such worlds seem more real than a dream.

RETRIEVING LOST YOUTH

Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire (Bantam, $22.95, 326 pages) is a very different creature. Unlike Gibson, whose books are all in some sense a continuing exploration of the same world, Sterling takes a more individual approach.

This new novel looks at the world two centuries ahead of us, a world dominated by old men and women kept alive for a century or longer by various forms of medical technology. It is the ultimate senior citizen's society where safety and conservatism are the ruling factors.

Sterling portrays a fascinatingly different world, but it is one whose roots can be observed growing in the world around us.

And yet, in relating the story of a medical economist named Zia, who is the archetype of all those gray individuals who merely survive until she is made the subject of an experiment that restores her youth, Sterling is telling a very old story in new clothes.

This is a story that could only be sold in a science fiction context, because in today's real world there are as yet no treatments that will transform a woman of 94 into a young woman. And yet in the emotions that surge throughout the book, the story of the struggle of a woman who has given up living until she is reminded of what she has lost, Sterling is telling the story of millions of middle-aged men and women who go through what are conventionally called midlife crises. They, like Zia, are looking for a way to live their life, not merely count the days until they reach the grave. The lucky ones make it.

If Sterling's vision holds, midlife crises are going to get a lot more interesting in a century or two.

MONSTER MASH

There are probably few leaps of literary perspective as sheer as the jump from Sterling's midlife crisis examination to Joan Aiken's childlike but not childish story of monsters invading England in The Cockatrice Boys (TOR Books, $20.95, 221 pages).

If you're not put off by descriptions of mundane Britons being eaten by various monsters of one sort or another, this novel by a well-known author of adult and children's books becomes a rollicking fantasy adventure. It centers on a young girl who is the key to the monster invasion, and her intrepid young male cousin who joins the crusade to drive the monsters away.

The funny story is made immeasurably more delicious by the fantastic and grotesque artwork by Jason Van Hollander found throughout its pages.

HAUNTING TALE

Sean Stewart's new novel, Clouds End (Ace, $19.95, 388 pages), is a haunting work of fantasy.

Stewart is a relatively undiscovered treasure in the science fiction/fantasy field. Each of his previous books has been hard to describe, and each one differs totally from its predecessor. Clouds End is no exception.

SHATTERED REALITY

Science fiction legend Damon Knight's Humpty Dumpty (St. Martin's Press, $22.95, 287 pages) is one of those acquired literary tastes that might be hard for the casual consumer of pre-digested fantasy or adventure formulas to get down, but if you're willing to give something different a try, it's an interesting reading experience.

This book could be read on one level as a somewhat legitimate account of the travails of an aging salesman who finds the wall between the various realities shattered by a bullet that shatters his skull.

On the other hand, it can be read as a hoot. It's hard to take seriously a book that postulates the world being run by a secret society of dentists. But it's a fun tale.